ARC Reflections Facilitator Orientation and Handouts

The Casey Foundation and the Justice Resource Institute developed ARC Reflections, a training curriculum to develop foster parents and caregivers’ understanding of traumatic stress, increase their own emotional regulation and provide tools to support their parenting skills. This orientation document gives facilitators tips on implementing ARC Reflections and additional handouts with instructions for training.

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In This Report, You’ll Learn

How to provide emotional safety for ARC Reflections training participants.

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How to set specific boundaries with participants to ensure everyone’s privacy and comfort.

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What participants can do if they notice that they are struggling and need help.

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The importance of identifying a plan for addressing any distress that participants might experience as they discuss the issues of trauma and loss.

Key Takeaway

Facilitator Preparation Is Important

As facilitators prepare to implement the ARC Reflections training, they need to review the implementation guide and work with their co-facilitators to understand their strengths and strategize about how to handle any challenges that might come up during the nine sessions.

Findings & Stats

Checking Emotions

Regulation activities can help to bring your energy up or down and keep your bodies and emotions feeling comfortable. Activities include deep breathing exercises, squeezing a stress ball, doodling or drawing, to name a few.

Individual Support

Facilitators should plan to check in individually with group participants two to three times over the course of the nine sessions, to provide support, answer questions and help participants identify additional resources if and as needed.

Emotional Triggers

Be mindful that material presented in these nine sessions can bring up strong emotions in participants — and in the facilitator, too.

Statements & Quotations

Facilitators will play an important role in helping foster parents do more than learn about the influence of trauma on the children and teens in their care.

ARC Reflections presents information about specific tools foster parents can use to help children learn to self-regulate. Foster parents — any of us, really — can use these tools in their own lives, too.